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Message boards : Number crunching : Card life?

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Profile Damaraland
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Message 23619 - Posted: 23 Feb 2012 | 7:52:02 UTC

Does any body have any idea how long does a 24h x 7 running card last?

Looking at the Quadro series prices, I wonder if there are more differencies appart from the quality of the components.

Another question: I saw that people talking about reselling Video Cards one they get unusable for computing. I understand that maybe there's just a few chips/memory positions that get unsuable, but the card still works fine for games. Am I wrong?

Profile Retvari Zoltan
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Message 23623 - Posted: 23 Feb 2012 | 11:37:00 UTC - in response to Message 23619.

Does any body have any idea how long does a 24h x 7 running card last?

The lifespan of a card depends on so many factors, that any specific answer to this question is impossible. I have 2 GTX 480's crunching at 800MHz for two years now, but they have extra cooling. Keeping the card cool (most importantly the GPU) is the key for a long lifespan. A chip's lifespan is halved by every 10K temperature rise. Another important thing is keeping the temperature stable, because a heating up then cooling down "cycle" can cause microscopic cracks and fractures on the chip and the PCB.

Looking at the Quadro series prices, I wonder if there are more differencies appart from the quality of the components.

The Quadro and the Tesla series running at lower frequencies, because it generates less heat, therefore the card will last longer. The other difference is in its drivers, and support.

Another question: I saw that people talking about reselling Video Cards one they get unusable for computing. I understand that maybe there's just a few chips/memory positions that get unsuable, but the card still works fine for games. Am I wrong?

"Fine" means a different thing for gaming and for computing. A glitch in a game can be less "lethal", than in computing. So if a card fails the workunits, it could be used for gaming with some extra flicker. But if the power supply fails on the card for example, it can't be used for gaming either (until it's repaired, but then it can be used for computing too). I'm crunching with 2 other (used) GTX 480's, which were used for gaming, but were upgraded by the previous owner (though they weren't broke)

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Message 23625 - Posted: 23 Feb 2012 | 12:49:25 UTC - in response to Message 23623.

Crunching stresses the cards in different ways from gaming. A knackered crunching card would still make for a very good general display card, and should run most average games. Some power-hungry games might not work, but others would.
The thing about the Quadro and Tesla cards is that they are grossly expensive. For GPUGrid they don’t make for good crunching cards in terms of initial outlay v productivity, and are not even better in terms of running cost v performance. So all they have going for them is reliability and possibly support.
The GF cards are much less expensive and perform better due to their higher clock speeds. They might not last as long for crunching, but they don’t have to. All they have to do is make it to the next generation of GPU, which usually offers better crunching performance. If you look after your high end GPU (good cooling and no over volting) it should last a couple of generations. Plenty of people are still using high end CC1.3 cards. By the time you reach 2 generations you should upgrade anyway. As for lesser GPU’s, especially with manufacturer-specific specs, these are less reliable. Don’t expect to crunch on these for 2 or 3 years.
The key to a good card is cooling. If going for air cooling get a dual fan card for high end cards and for medium to low end cards make sure they have large fans. The chipset-like cooler fans don’t cool the GPU enough and consistently fail, so avoid them.

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Message 23702 - Posted: 1 Mar 2012 | 0:39:54 UTC - in response to Message 23619.

I've been using my GTX 275 24x7 with no extra ventilation since 2009 and it's still crunching without any problems...
I'll let you know when its dies ;-)

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Message boards : Number crunching : Card life?

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